Sunday, 23 March 2008

Short Talk:

Here in this blog, all entry titles prefixed with "ADV" are ads. What that means is that whilst the blog topic may be suggested by an advertisor, the content and experience are entirely my own. It is still 100% kennysia.com.

That, and this entry is published while I'm at the transit lounge in Abu Dhabi Airport. :)

Sometime ago, INTI University College (INTI-UC) invited me over to the campus in Nilai to cover its graduation ceremony for kennysia.com

It's been ages since I set foot in a campus and my trip to INTI-UC brought back some warm memories of the good old times of my student days.

The trip was also my first time to Nilai in Negri Sembilan.

Nilai is a booming town that is ironically closer to the KL International Airport than KL city itself. I was picked up at the airport by one of INTI-UC's officers who drove me straight to the campus.

The whole journey took us less than 20 minutes.

Too bad

INTI's Nilai Campus has been around for a good ten years, and it does show its age.

One of the first things that impress me is how much emphasis is put on on-campus housing, or the "Halls of Residences" as they call it. There's got to be at least 15 blocks of hostels here of different rates and configurations.

Parents come and dump their kids here so that they can learn how to become more independent. International and outstation students make it their home away from home. With such a large expanse of residential units, the university college can accommodate tons of boarding students.

Confucius is so confusing it makes me confused

Instead of following the usual way of naming their buildings Block A, B, C, D and so on, the Halls of Residence are named after famous scholars. So we've got a Block Confucius for Block C and a Block Darwin for Block D.

Maybe it's to inspire students. Or maybe it's the work of evil people who wanna make people confused.

The room I was put in was in the "Shakespeare" block. Though old, the unit is large and well-furnished. It comes with an internet line provided free-of-charge, but too bad you can't download too much data over it.

It's no five star hotel but it's a lot better than most hostels I've seen which smell so bad not even homeless people would wanna stay in them.

All the creature comforts are concentrated here. There's an ATM machine, a convenience store, a hair salon, a computer shop and a cybercafe all located in the same area.

It's not all fun and games here of course. They do have some common rooms here in the Halls to encourage group studies.

Recreation-wise, students are spoilt for choice because there's a gym, soccer field, squash courts, badminton courts, basketball courts, pool tables and even an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Something interesting I heard about the swimming pool. Over there, every Thursday night is Ladies' Night.

Unlike at the pubs, Ladies' Night there isn't a time where all you lovely ladies out there can pop by and get a free drink. Ladies' Night at the INTI swimming pool is the time where only girls can use the swimming pool, and no guys are allowed.

So guys, remember to pack your binoculars.

Right across the road from the Halls of Residence, linked by an overhead bridge, is the campus' illustrious academic wing.

It feels a little bit more "authoritarian" over here. Nestled among nicely landscaped gardens, the long corridors, brightly lit classrooms and uptight labs give it a feel of campus life.

The environment here is lovely. The acacemic wing of the campus is kinda similar to what you see in those Taiwanese college drama series like Meteor Garden.

Without that stupid boyband F4.

It is very quiet. There isn't a lot of things to do on this side of the campus ground apart from going to classes, going to the labs and using the library.

Come to think of it, there isn't a lot of entertainment or distractions around Nilai in general. The town is isolated from all the entertainment and shopping malls of KL. Depending on how you see it, that could be a good thing or a bad thing.

Optimus Prime learns how to write

If your purpose of going to college is to study, then it's a good thing.

If your purpose of going to college is to party, it's a bad thing.

Like most private university colleges in Malaysia, INTI-UC's main attraction is its 3+0 degree programmes where students can study at INTI-UC and graduate with degrees from UK's Coventry University and University of Hertfordshire.

They also offer degree transfer programmes where you can do part of your studies at INTI-UC and complete the rest overseas.

No doubt INTI-UC has a peaceful study environment and the students there do really concentrate on their studies. Many of them come to Nilai to study only and nothing else.

It is very obvious, because they all have that look on their face that screams, "I'M A VIRGIN."

Sorry for being mean. :P But of course, not all are like that.

Some of the students are kinda cool. I spotted this bunch that looked like they should be accompanied with some hip hop music from P Diddy.

Nilai is very laid back. Even without modern day entertainment outlets like cinemas, shopping malls and nightclubs as distractions, the students here sure come across as a happy bunch.

They spend most of their free time participiating in club and society activities. Through these they get to know lots of new friends.

I think I might die of boredom if I ever live in Nilai. But boredom isn't necessarily a bad thing.

When you strip away all the superficialities of a big city, I guess you bond with people around you a lot better.

Some graduates I spoke to really cherish the new friends they made there, to the extent that they said their time at INTI-UC is the best time of their lives.

Nilai residents' most favourite past time is staring blankly at plants and watching them grow

No ,I did not graduate from INTI-UC. But my short trip to the campus brought back nostalgic memories of my student days.

Although I've been out in the workforce for almost 5 years now, it was during my uni years that I've grown up and learnt the most.

Things hadn't always been smooth sailing of course. I remember the nightmares chasing assignment deadlines, working on Matlab, making friends with Ohm's and Kirchoff's Laws, learning everything about FIR, FFT and DFT until I wish the lecturer would just bloody STFU.

Mr Jansz its not that Inti forces students to wear uniforms... Please dont misinterpret that picture... we at Inti allow field trips from schools to come to Inti Nilai to see what Inti Nilai and college life is really about.

It's really not too bad. In fact, there's a lot more life in Inti Nilai than places like... Taylors Subang, speaking from experience. When I was studying there, we had lots of house parties, participated in a lot of events & camps, had full-fledged sports facilities, friends were more close-knitted. Despite the distance, we'll still drive up to KL for clubbin, and then back by 6am after mamak, and then off to class at 8am. As for the 'female only' dorms, well, that only means students get to watch free shows around the campus (if u know wat I mean). Whereas in Subang, it's always movies, shopping or cybercafe. How many times can one walk the malls, or go clubbin in a week?Most students go back to their homes or hang out with their old schmates, it was a lot about popularity and being fashionable,so friendship was cool, but different. College societies were dead, except for the more popular events like battle of the bands. I had a total culture shock moving from subang to nilai last time, and totally regretted it in the beginning. But aft a few mths, it was the best decision ever made.

man..missed INTI-UC...well i have to admit you cant find clubbin and movies easily...but u still have ur cybercafe...and u can treat the whole block of accommodation as a cybercafe as well..since all the lines are connected. best of all was the clubs..being part of a club, meeting new people, working together,playing together,competing each other 4 the best clubs, i can bet with you, INTI is the most and by far most the most active college in terms of activities..nothing can beat it...

I am proudly from INTI-UC. Spent 2 years there before transferring to the UK for my 3rd year. You're right about one thing, Kenny. You really do bond with people there because there is nothing much to do, haha. I made some very good friends in my two years there. It's difficult to imagine an exciting life in Nilai unless you are there personally to experience it. Looking at those pics really made me a little homesick for Nilai. You even captured the boredom and stillness of the place ;)

I didn't enrol myself into INTI-UC because Nilai-UC offered me cheaper in terms of tuition fees. If you're looking for a social life, INTI-UC definitely offers more than Nilai-UC.

However it has been 2.5 years since I graduated from Nilai-UC. Inti-UC people has always been my great friends when it comes to Christian Fellowship and travelling together to Banting every Sunday for church service.

When you blogged about Nilai, I realised how much I grew up in Nilai too. Without much entertainment, we thanked God for broadband internet that helped us to survive our uni days.

Ei, whether you got life in Inti or not is all depending on how creative you were lor. Me and my friends did have a lot of fun in Inti. May be barely because we dun have the exciting nightlife in KL, we get to do things together more often and have our own sweet time. We tried to join all kinds of activities that had been organised by various societies. We went to mamak and sat for hours just to "pat" about all kind of stuff. We had bbq and had fun until 1 to 2am until we looked like "zombies" in our next day 8am class. As one of the Inti graduates, i can tell you for sure that "WE DID HAVE FUN!!" ^__^

"Unlike at the pubs, Ladies' Night there isn't a time where all you lovely ladies out there can pop by and get a free drink. Ladies' Night at the INTI swimming pool is the time where only girls can use the swimming pool, and no guys are allowed."

That is my campus, and I have so much memories there! The place change a lot (in a nicer way) since I left in 2004. It use to be Block A,B,C and got change later on =P

I do miss my INTI days. Made tons of great friends, yes, due to the lack of entertainment in the area. But everyone with a car will go to Sunway or Seremban or even KLIA to get some entertainment.

There is quite a few good food in Nilai, which you should have tried. Nasi Kandar @ Cempaka, midnight Wan Tan Mee @ Nilai old town, Dim Sum @ Semarak and a few more. If you have the chance to go back, I personally recommend the Nasi Kandar!

nilai is like a dead town...i've been here for 4 semesters(1 yr plus) and i'm getting sick of this place...nothing much to offer...but one thing good is they[inti-uc] sponsored us free F1 grandstand tickets!!! =)

Wow... i'm currently studying in INTI-UC. Judging from the pictures, you came here last semester, right?? Sigh... how come there's no mews about you coming over to INTI-UC?? i missed the chance to meet up with you!

Anyway, what's so boring about INTI-UC? Unless you're not active in clubs, doesn't go out for late night supper, and have no friends, then that'll be a different case...

Wooo.. PAM+Mich! our names are there. haha
Anyway, Nilai is not so bad..
I seriously love the hostel life here. It's very lively! + there's always something to do
Although we don't get to club.. we play mahjong till 6am then go for 8am classes. [talk about craziness!]
We organized our own concert in our rooms and sing till the next block can hear us *LOL*
We have late night supper + we save the time traveling by car and wasting petrol.
There's a lot of club(as you can see in the pictures). So there's a lot of activities.
It depends on how you wanna spend your college life here.
*ar talking crap here xD*
Cheers to INTI? hahha!

hey...
been in this hell hole for the past 3 years. Inti is a money-sucking pit of endless zombies where we just walk around pretending we have a life. as a matter of fact, i'm still sitting in their "luxury block" and even this is torture. can't imagine the mental agony the other students go through in the other 4 by 4 jail cells.. don't come here. dont... if u like staying sane, don't come here.........

i totally agree with criminal.. don't go to inti..
the room kenny stayed in is a special room for special guests like lecturers from overseas or sth.. try staying in the normal guest room.. my friend's friend used to stay there.. and she showed me the room.. it's so dusty and the blanket was stained with blood.. there's no air-conditioner in the room.. and the cupboard has a broken door.. and they charge a whooping RM65 for a night..

Wow Criminal, you must really be an anti-social person. I don't think ppl are pretending to have a life by 'walkin around'. You shud really get out of your luxury room more often, join some clubs, go for island trips, camps, befriend the lecturers and have them buy you drinks, ghost-hunt,catch the lightning before it rains, watch some illegal car-racing every once in a ...(oops, I think I'm talkin too much). But yea.. just enjoy campus life man.

Now that I have left INTI and stayed in the UK since, I can safely say it is NOT BORING at all if you know what to do ! In fact, I L.O.V.E. I.T
There are endless list of societies, clubs, trips, and oh! dc++ :p (is it still there?). That was years ago and I had so much fun, and Im sure there are more now?!

but oh!of course if you choose to be a hermit, I dont think you have much say on this?

and I can't believe people are complaining about the lack of pubs, clubs and shopping complex?!
DDDDDDDDoooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh!!

Pubs, clubs and shopping complexes are NOT going anywhere! They will be there, if not mushrooming at exponential rate, when you graduate and move to bigger city like KL or Subang. you can always get wasted .anytime.you.want. In fact, it will be the only thing you can afford to do at weekends when you are out there working.

But once you leave college and plunge into working world, how many of you can get the chance to go jungle trekking for hours in Cameron highlands with society A, go stargazing and sleep under the stars in Frasers Hill with club B, go snorkelling and turtle watching in Redang with club C, take in deep in kampung untouched waterfall with club D, go for banana boating, wall climbing, martial arts tournaments and all that? I did all that and more, and whenever I looked back at my college life, there is only sweet wonderful memory! :)

It's like taking a gap year off doing all the fun, adventurous things without leaving college.

hm.. some improvements and upgrade there now. Now it look more decent unlike the old time. More foods and cybercafes nearby. That is the new source of entertainment at night. And KL is very easily reachable, with RM 40 per cab, students can reach to any destination in KL in comfort. :P And the trend is, people rent car there. Monthly, yearly or daily.

And the room you are staying, that is VIP room, only for VIP guests. :P That is not the hostel. I wish the hostel was like that last time. But no.

And the swimming pool is the best ever. With the crystal clear water, and best if you are within their swim, life saving, or water polo team, you might get chance to enjoy the luxury of part of the pool for training. Separated form others. Miss those days.

Now its much better and a good place to stay on. Entertainment can be arranged at any way. Just depends on how you hang out. One good thing, they do have Street Parties once in awhile. Where students can have bazaar around the hostel road side, and open air music party with DJs on the house.

kenny you should come do a review on Curtin University in Miri. I swear that place, name only international uni from OZ but the it is the most inadequate facility ever! i shud noe i'm a student. our hostels are smelly, the toilets are never clean, our cafeteria opens whenever it feels like it. we have a black filth pond, no swimming pool.

grrr.. sometimes local universities are way more concerned about the students. tv- no need to say. static 24/7. plus miri is super boring!!

I studied there just last year to do my SAM programme... And my sisters studies there about 5 or 6 years ago, so Inti is almost like home to me. I knew it even before I started studying there.

You should have stopped by and asked some students about life there, it's actually not that boring. When you lack technology, you end up doing really weird things like trying out the mentos and coke theory (one tube of mentos and 1.5L or coke--nothing happened.. sad..)

Or doing assignments at the common room till 6 am and going for supper immediately and to class after that(effects: a very tired bunch of classmates the next day and not one of them can concentrate) / leaving inti at 2am to go to A&W in sbn to study.

That bridge that connects the two buildings (aka The Bridge) actually vibrates if you stand there while no one else in walking across. Scary.

I guess Inti-UC students end up traveling a lot for any sort of entertainment... =/

Oh.. and there's a Giant there now to entertain you a little. And at night inti-ans tend to travel to mamaks near by, a famous one would be ETC (eastern tea corner) =)

I'm from Miri and i'm currently studying in Nilai College. Been reading your blog since god knows when. Can't believe you were so near but didn't get the chance to see u!!!! It's true we're bored here tat is why many of the nilai students turn to drugs.... Parents think that by sending us here we're going to study hard and not have fun but tat is so not true. All we think about here is to rent a car to go get "stuff" in KL... It's depressing but what else is there to do?

Wow.. it's heartwarming.. and nostalgic.. to read about college and university thingy.. perhaps particularly cos i'm graduating soon. maybe i'm gonna miss the good ol sch days (like you do).. agree with you.. the sch hall, i mean the hostel, looks kinda decent.. nice!
in fact, i wouldn't mind being a student there if i had the chance to =)

So, Kenny.. what were u like as a student then? the one with sole purpose of studying and nothing else.. or the one who's hip and active in all those clubs and societies? care to share?

hahaha... kenny. i saw you when u came to INTI..
it was when i was taking my food in Dining Hall.
you walked pass by and just looked around..

actually INTI not so bad la.. but never plan to come to INTI if you want to study Multimedia Computing.. it's completely different from what u expected.. we studied more things on stupid other subject rather than in mUltimedia field..
we all Multimedia students has been cheated.. u what a waste!!!

for overall, it's not so bad. especially when you like sports.. there are a lot of people balling every night. it's good for people who love sports so much.

Well guys, to be frank, INTI-UC is a cool place to be. I was a student at INTI for 4 years and now i am working here as well. It is going to be 5 years i spent my life at Nilai. Shocking? Yeah, i couldn't believe it either. First when i came here i hated the place. But eventually i started falling in love. Many people have many different comments about this place. But end of the day, it is really up to you whether to make the experience here heaven or hell. If you are someone who stays in your room playing game and chatting 24 hours, then don't complain! INTI-UC is for people who really wants to experience college life rather than coming here to party all the time. It gives you balance between education and fun. It is not that you cannot go clubbing or shopping when you are here. I can reach KL within 30 minutes and Seremban in 20 minutes. Don't you think it takes the same amount of time to get anywhere around KL? Honestly, whoever graduated from INTI-UC and experienced the uniqueness that INTI-UC has to offer, will never regret it! And NO, INTI is not going to give me bonus for saying nice things about them! Hehe...

Kenny...a part of the sports facilities u 4gt to mention the new squash n futsal court which is available now..i think the pic taken way back last year november right??? thanx 4 the INTI-UC post as im 1 of the student here..hehe bsides tat 4 the no males allowed part theres apartment as well next door so everythin is here and comin up pub will be available in nilai which is own by INTI student itself...chEErrssss~~

People say the place does not matter, it is the people! Blessed with both however, Inti has plenty of space for students to mingle and stuffed with a bunch of people with heart that cares. When you leave this place, you are sure to leave with memories unlike any other. Despite its somber looking environment, Kenny is definately right about it being a booming town! I'm sure to miss my good old times here! Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, and the serenity of this lil town and school is in the way one feels, values, and connects!

Whoever said INTI clubs and societies are the most active? We here in MMU are active too and i believe most other private colleges too. Well perhaps you staying in the sleepy town has closed your mind a bit. Open up and see the real world young man. You cannot say, "my house is the most beautiful" if you are yet to see other houses first. :P

errrr, my english is poor but i still remember my IT lecturer told us there's no machine after 'ATM' as ATM stands for Automatic Teller Machine. so it was duplicate of 'machine'. the common misteke hope u won't mind

I read from the Edge that they are not doing very well, their profit shrinks dramatically. Due to it's remote area, the value of it's property also droped. Hence, unsurprisingly it's share price also dropped from it's previous height. In addition, you can also see that there's not alot of students there/ graduating. This is due to increasing competition not only from private institution such as Sunway College, Taylor COllege, Monash Univeristy, Curtin University and Swinburne University which offers better quality in education (brand name) but also IPTA such as UTAR which is offering much cheaper price for the similar course. In addition,there's increasing corruption of Inti espcially for the Sarawak campus. Hopefully they will be better after Kenny's help. *p/s: they must have pay you alot huh kenny? :P

It's interesting how international student demographics have changed in less than a decade. Even in the 90s it was strange to see a black person in Malaysia...now there's a fair number (no pun intended!) of African students.

Does anyone know about the internet connection in inti nilai? i know it can be upgraded to 512Kbps, but are there restrictions to p2p or torrent programs? pls email me at internetmarketingfix@yahoo.com

After studying here for almost 3 years, this is the real deal... inti hostel does not provide free internet connection.. One have to pay in order to use the internet services... currently EBB or extreme broadband, is providing the internet connection throughout the inti hostel.. i know im speaking for all of them by saying that the inti connection / line in the hostel VERY VERY VERY BAD.. even opening this page takes around 5 mins.. this is currently the big issue in inti now where the students does not have a reliable internet connection to use..

the other thing is inti does have its own forum, which is at intionline.intimal.edu.my where student used to post their problems or discontent. however the management does not do anything to solve them and does not even reply.. they do reply only when they think they can win.. another current issue is the Back entrance of inti which for stupid reasons has been locked, forcing student who stay outside to take a 10 minute detour to class.. management keeps on giving lame excuses..

probably kenny would like to come and visit the student and post the stories from the student's point of view.. ^^